The UK's Birds of Conservation Concern

A new report called Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (BOCC 5) has taken a fresh look at the state of the UK’s birds and its findings are dismaying and shocking in equal measure. It was published recently in the magazine British Birds.

***Common Swift populations in the UK have seen a severe decline – down by 58% when numbers in 2018 are compared to those from 1995. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd***

BOCC 5 is an evidence-based tiered, traffic light system that places all of the UK’s birds into one of three categories in increasing order of conservation concern – Green, Amber and Red.

***The House Martin moves from the Amber to Red list in BoCC 5 because its population declined by 57% between 1969 and 2018. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd***

BOCC 5 is produced by a partnership comprising the British Trust for Ornithology, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, NatureScot and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

***As their name suggests, House Martins in the UK depend almost entirely on human dwellings for nesting. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd***

BOCC 5 reports that things have got progressively worse since the last update in 2015 and now more than one in four species are in serious trouble. The UK Red List for birds now stands at 70 species, a net increase of three from the last update in 2015.

There is a crumb of comfort perhaps in White-tailed Eagle being moved from Red to Amber as a result of conservation work. However, the overall outlook is bleak and the length of the UK Red List has almost doubled, from 36 to 70 species, in the last 25 years. Added to list in this report are Swift, House Martin, Greenfinch and Bewick’s Swan. 103 species are now on the Amber list.

Bewick’s Swans have been added to the latest Red List. Global Warming is having an impact on habitats used by this Arctic-nesting species and illegal hunting and ingestion of lead shot add to its woes. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd

Some of the reasons underlying the decline in bird numbers are familiar. Habitat loss and degradation as a result of land use generally, and agriculture in particular, are major factors along with industrialisation. Hunting pressure, here and more so abroad, has a dramatic effect on migratory birds in particular. But some factors are more insidious: the crash in Greenfinch numbers is largely attributed to the disease Trichomonosis, which is spread through contaminated food and drinking water at garden feeders.

Once a familiar garden bird, the Greenfinch has moved directly from the Green to the Red List after a population crash of 62% since 1993 due to the disease Trichomononsis caused by the parasitic protozoan Trichomonas gallinae. Photo ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd

All in all, this is a shameful state of affairs for a country that by global standards is wealthy and is in a position to make difficult choices should it choose to do so. It is also a country where a significant proportion of the population espouses an interest in or sympathy for nature in the broadest sense. Of course, not all of the problems that beset the UK’s birds are the result of actions taken at home but there is plenty that, collectively, we as a nation could and should do better.